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At a Dec. 2 special meeting, the San Juan Bautista City Council voted to approve the final wording of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that will be submitted to the San Benito County Board of Supervisors. If accepted by the board, the MOU would give the city a greater voice in decisions regarding proposed developments in the area immediately outside the city limits.
The agreement, first introduced at the May 28 meeting of the Urban Growth/Sphere of Influence Committee, was primarily drafted by members Dan De Vries and Chris Martorana. It has been revised several times following contentious debate and suggestions from the council and City Manager Don Reynolds.
The original memorandum defined three concentric rings around the city limits that had reflected diminishing levels of concern the further out they extended. The closest ring would have given the city substantial control over approving any proposed projects in that area. The city would have lesser levels of influence within the other two rings.
The final memorandum reduces the area of concern to that closest to the city limits. It changes language from the city’s ability to approve or deny projects to its support or non-support for them. It defines a series of cooperative policies between the city and county for processing development applications within that area.
If accepted by the county, the policies as outlined in Section Five of the document will include:
- City and county planning staff meetings at least quarterly to discuss proposals
- Any formal applications for developments submitted to the county and city simultaneously
- The San Juan Bautista Planning Commission receiving an informal presentation from the project applicant
- The commission submitting feedback and comments to the county
- The county responding before the city’s final vote to support or oppose the project
- Following the city’s vote, the county would give the decision “great weight”
Retiring Councilmember John Freeman objected to the MOU. He said he was concerned that “we love San Juan so much that we are literally strangling off economic growth.” He said the city needed either residential growth or new businesses to stimulate the economy, and the MOU did not support either.
“I want San Juan to stay small,” he said, “and I fully support the boundaries to the east, to the west and to the north, but I think to the south, across 156, you are mistaken.”
Councilmember E.J. Sabathia said he shared Freeman’s concerns. He said he thought the planning maps were too restrictive but that the simplified document was clear.
The resolution passed 4-1, with councilmembers Sabathia, Leslie Jordan, Jackie Morris-Lopez and Mayor Scott Freels voting “yes” and Freeman voting “no.”
The submission of the MOU to the county follows the council’s November 2023 adoption of a resolution that defined the city’s urban growth boundary, sphere of influence and planning area. The resolution was forwarded to LAFCO for approval. The memorandum was the last work assigned to the Urban Growth/Sphere of Influence Committee, which the council voted to dissolve at their Nov. 19 meeting.
The meeting’s final discussion concerned the current economic situation of the downtown historic district.
Freeman took the lead, offering a list of his concerns:
- Construction on Hwy 156 means “customers from Hollister are no longer coming into town.”
- San Juan’s restaurants have not recovered from COVID, and there is a lack of varied cuisine.
- San Juan has two competing business organizations, The Spirit of San Juan and Discover San Juan, that “actively undermine each other.”
- There is a lack of support for businesses from the surrounding community.
- The loss of the Mission as a venue for El Teatro Campesino’s Christmas plays reduces visitors during the holiday season.
- “Erratic tourism marketing efforts” are often misdirected and inadequate.
Jordan, a member of The Spirit of San Juan, said there was nothing erratic about their tourism efforts. She said they were buying ads in magazines like Sunset and Alaska Airlines, creating video spots and commercials, partnering with local tourism groups and conducting other forms of outreach.
Currently, the city provides funds to the Spirit of San Juan only. Sabathia said splitting funding between both organizations might “begin to mend the fences” between them. He also said he wanted to see more progress on the proposed vacancy fees that would encourage owners of empty properties to seek tenants. Sabathia also said that the city would benefit from creating a business park to encourage businesses like Waltz Creative to come to town.
During public comment, Martorana, who previously served as mayor of San Juan, said that in his 15 years of living in town, everyone who tried to deal with its economics and tourism problems had “utterly failed.”
He said he had brainstormed with community and business leaders to generate “hundreds of ideas” and that the problem was a lack of execution.
“There is no consensus among the people,” he said, “no specific goals and no cooperation. The leadership has to come from the people in this room to drive those things.”
He suggested withholding the money earmarked for tourism unless it was spent on what the council wanted it spent on. He said each council member should come up with five ideas, discuss them, choose the best among them and work to put them into action.
“Something has got to be done,” he said. “Use the power that you have, and it will build on itself and grow. I went to the Spirit of San Juan meeting this morning, and they are as frustrated as you. They need help. They need leadership, and it has to start here.”
Freeman ended the discussion by saying that the town needed a chamber of commerce comprised exclusively of business owners.
In light of historian and city consultant Meg Clovis’s upcoming retirement, the council agreed unanimously to contract with Rincon Consultants, a group of planning professionals who can assume the responsibilities Clovis will leave behind.
Rincon’s staff includes nine historic preservationists whose qualifications exceed the Department of the Interior’s standards. It also offers access to over 340 archeologists and experts in planning and environmental disciplines. The new historic preservation services are budgeted not to exceed $50,000 for the upcoming year.
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